Hybrid Cloud Storage

Certain things are performed very well by cloud computing. It helps you in delivering upgrades and applications. It performs analysis on large data that are based on the cloud. It helps you in connecting groups that are distributed by enabling them to share files and communications. Also, it offers an excellent environment for building applications and for running device processes. However, when it comes to public cloud storage, it is an entirely different concept. It usually delivers cost effective and long-term storage solutions for those archives and backups that are inactive. Once the data streams of those archives and backups are scheduled and operating, they are designed to consume comparatively low bandwidth. This helps to a greater extent in saving the storage capacity on premises and has the ability to take the place of offsite tape vaulting.

What Do Cloud Storage Users Want?

However, the users of cloud storage services expect more out of it. Most of the users wish to have the agility and cost benefits that public cloud has to offer, without having to spend huge sums of money for building an on-premise storage system. They wish to make use of the services offered by the public cloud storage solution for making their archive and backup cost-effective, in addition to using the same for even more primary or active data. This case is especially prevalent with business organizations that contain workloads with swiftly increasing data sets that soon require file sharing and collaboration. While they might need some data to be stored locally, on premises, the majority of data can be tiered or moved to public cloud storage.

Such challenging wish lists of enterprises can be easily met with the help of Hybrid Cloud Storage (HCS). This type of storage solution combines local on-premises storage with that of public cloud storage in the form of integrated storage infrastructure. Hybrid cloud storage system makes use of both the resources of scalable cloud storage as well as those on premises for active or primary data, expansion of that data and also to protect that data in a cloud storage tier that is extremely cost effective.

Issues with Traditional Storage Methods

A great amount of applications give rise to unstructured active files, inclusive of emails, applications of office documents, PDF documents, and content management systems, in addition to streaming data and intensive graphics from entertainment, utilities, healthcare, and engineering industries. These are the sectors in which the real growth of data is taking place, which has considerable amount of influence on the data protection, backup performance, and storage capacity of Tier 2. By adding limited amount of real estate for data centers and high energy costs, data growth proves to be a serious challenge when it comes to enabling business continuity and protecting crucial business data.

Following are some most common issues with traditional storage methods:

Complexity: The traditional storage infrastructure maintained by different business organizations usually has a complex structure. It is conventionally built from discordant systems of storage by using all of their accompanying software and hardware, applications, network components, cloud backup targets, and operating systems. In addition, the upgraded dedupe, replication, hardware and software upgrades, etc. make the storage infrastructure even harder to manage and complex.

Poor practices for recovery and data protection: Traditional or conventional methods of data protection often lead to longer recovery and backup times. Also, there are certain additional challenges that include IT overhead and increasing operating expenses. Hence, it is evident that conventional data storage and data protection service providers have taken very less steps to improve such poor practices of data storage and recovery.

Tape: In the data storage infrastructure, tape has always continued to be one of the strong performers in the form of secondary or tertiary tiers of storage. Howbeit, over the years, there are certain environmental troubles that take place compromising tape media, such as risky inadvertent overwrites and frequent media churns. In addition, you face the risk of losing your valuable business data when transporting tapes. Though tape might still remain competitive in the market, a relatively large storage, backup, or restoration can require days or even weeks of manual labor.

The Economic Advantage of Hybrid Cloud Storage

The credit crisis has made it even more challenging for business organizations to bear the costs pertinent to building additional data centers for storage on premises. The sustained uncertainty in the economy has signified that business organizations have always had to maintain their expenses non-capitalized and variable, searching for solutions that are based on storage on demand, in addition to encouraging those organizations to consider outsourcing their storage needs to the cloud. Also, most business organizations that contain increasingly variable needs for storage do not usually wish to pay for storage they do not use.

The most recent online storage and backup services are more cost effective when compared to most other internal storage solutions, and have been found to offer the additional advantage of a disaster recovery solution that is maintained offsite. From the perception of a business, you obtain the ability to store, backup, access as well as restore your data or files from anywhere, on any device that can be connected to the internet, and enable business continuity with absolute cost effectiveness. Real disaster recovery solutions and cheaper costs for usage of storage space are some primary factors that drive businesses to move to storage on the cloud.

Another great aspect of hybrid cloud storage is its flexibility. The flexibility of cloud storage has been attracting more and more consumers, as they are required to pay only for the actual amount of storage space they use and not a dime higher. Most cloud storage services also provide value added services like de-duplication and security.